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Animal Rescue Tries To Help Parkton Cats

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PARKTON, Md. (WJZ) — There are dozens and dozens of cats, and a woman who can no longer care for them.

Suzanne Collins reports on efforts to save their lives.

The sound of food brings cats swarming to Sharon Wheeler’s deck in Parkton. She loves animals, but in a few years, three abandoned kittens living in the barn turned into 50 cats. Her husband just died and she’s putting a call out for help.

“The problem here is the population is getting out of hand. I couldn’t continue to feed them because he’s not here and financially need help,” said Wheeler.

Animal Rescue arrived with traps and cages to take a few cats at a time to their shelter for spaying. They want to stop the colony from getting even bigger. Cats must recover from surgery in a warm place, but the shelter has limited space.

“We would love to be able to bring our mobile unit here and do as many as we can in one day, but because of the weather we’re doing about 10 to 15 at a time,” said Grace Froelich, Animal Rescue.

Animal Rescue says most of these cats are very healthy. Some of them are also very friendly, somewhat domesticated and it is believed many will be adoptable.

“I’ve seen them with Sharon. They come around. She can pet them, may take a bit of extra work to be able to pick them up and cuddle them,” said Froelich. “But I think a lot of these cats have the potential of being house cats.”

Animal Rescue is using a grant from the Snyder Foundation to pay for the spaying, but it needs donations for food. They also want to impart a message: don’t abandon unwanted cats in the country.

“If you cannot keep your cat, take your cat to a shelter. It may not find a home, but it’s a lot kinder than a cat that dies of starvation,” said Froelich.

If you are interested in donating to Animal Rescue to help cover the cost of spaying and food, or can adopt a cat, click here.